Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 October 1901 — COLUMBIA WINS RACE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

COLUMBIA WINS RACE

FIRST OF THE SERIES GOES TO AMERICAN YACHT. - ...... Shamrock la Beaten by a Very Close Margin, After an Exciting Struggle —Forty-eight American Soldiers Are Slain in Filipino Trap. After sailing thirty milts so closely together that the result was always uncertain, Columbia and Shamrock crossed the finish line Saturday afternoon in such a hair-raising finish that .for some time there was uncertainty as to which boat had won. The official time shows that Columbia was less than half a minute in the lead, whi ,‘h, with its time allowance of forty-three seconds, gives it the first race by a fraction over a minute. Probably never before in the history of international yachting lias there been so close and so exciting a race. Shamrock got a few seconds the best of the start, and for a time maintained its slight advantage. Then Captain Barr's boat crept up, the two great racers flying along like a pair of twin sea gulls, their wings almost touching. At several times on the journey out to sea it was noted that they were not morn than a hundred yards apart. Shamrock got around the outer mark less than a minute in the lead, and the race home began on i tactically even terms. The two yachts, with their

towering white sails, swept down the home stretch like evenly matched race horses, and the heart of every sportsman was in his mouth. First oae and then the other of the boats seemed to get a tiny lead as they caught the first breath of passing puffs of wind, and two miles out from the line the excited experts could only say, "It is still anybody’s race.” The result of the first race in the series was quite sufficient to demonstrate that a challenger and n defender were never so evenly notched before. The fact that the two yachts were seemingly so closely matched has, of course, added greatly to the public interest in the remaining races of the series.

COURSE OF THE YACHT RACES.